Category: Glimpses of Life

This post is long overdue as I started writing it in mid-January. What a slow start I’m having this year. Well, here it goes …

After making a lap quilt from a kit that I had in the house from a few years ago, I finally decided to take the plunge and try a larger quilt.

About 10.5 years ago  (I know, I know, it was a long time ago …), my sister had asked me to make her a quilt for her king size bed. At that time, I didn’t have my own sewing machine so it had to wait until ~ now.

I knew deep inside my gut though that tackling such a large quilt would be too overwhelming for me so I decided to make it a tad smaller. When I finally finished it, it came out to 96×64. Not quite king size, but …

The good news is I found out that my sister bought a platform bed and this size would fit quite well. It would also fit on a king size bed that has a tall footboard. So, I was quite happy with it.

I had happened to come across some really pretty blue material that I thought would match the color on the walls she recently painted.  Here’s a look at the fabric I used.

The larger fabric pieces came as a set and I purchased it on Etsy; the green “divider” fabric is from a sheet that a neighbor friend gave me when his wife passed away; the white fabric was purchased at JoAnn’s Fabric and the evergreen backing was purchased at a local fabric store.

To say I had problems making this quilt would be an understatement.

First, I should have practiced a LOT more before embarking on a quilt this size. My sewing was not quite straight in some parts. See?

Can’t see much uneven-ness? Well, let me point out that this was supposed to be sewn “in the ditch” (along the seam line) and I missed by a long shot. I decided to leave it that way as I thought it looked pretty although it was a “line” that didn’t match the rest of the quilt.

Then I made what I call a “newbie” mistake. A HUGE newbie mistake. I should have made doubly and triply sure that the top of the quilt was sewn very securely but I didn’t do that so once I put the quilt together I decided to check and sure enough, I had a few places where I had to go back and sew this area by hand which is not easy to do.  Sigh …

Mind you, these imperfections can’t be seen from afar but still … it was laziness on my part and a lesson well learned.

At the onset, I found myself saying “I really need more sewing practice” but instead of stopping to practice I continued to make the quilt.  Learn from that mistake, will ya?

One of the hardest parts for me was putting the top, batting and backing together. I went to the store and bought myself some plastic clamps to hold everything together so I could pin it on a kitchen table.

Alas, this didn’t work well and the backing was crooked after I had pinned it, so I had to unpin the whole quilt and start over again.

Then, I decided to use a temporary fabric adhesive called 505. It worked very very well although I had to lay everything out on the garage floor which is not hard in the summer but I was doing this in the Minnesota winter. I wound up using an old king size sheet under everything.

One fear that I’ve had as a new quilter is that the quilt will fall apart. I had visions of little pieces of thread coming out all over the place.  (Such a phobia …)

Well, let me tell you, since I used small stitches, had “crooked” sewing then had to remove all the stitching, I can testify that this quilt will absolutely not come apart.

Surprisingly, the binding (edges) of the quilt came out quite well. (Let me take a moment to pat myself on the back here … hey! someone’s gotta do it.)

After I finished this quilt I tossed it in the washer in cold water, crossed my fingers and prayed that it didn’t shrink. Surprisingly, it washed beautifully and so I tossed it in the dryer. Another thumbs up!

And here it is ~ drum roll please!

I literally cried when I packed it to ship it to my sister for Christmas. I told her that it took a lot of blood, sweat and tears and I meant that literally as I didn’t use a sewing thimble and kept pricking myself when I was manually sewing it.

Surprisingly, I sweat when I sew. Weird, no? I’m not a sweater but the intensity of making this quilt must have had something to do with it.

I’m now in “practice” mode again. I’m practicing making different quilting designs and also purchased a kit to make table runners. That project is going quicker than what I thought and I’m almost finished with it. Soon, very soon, I’ll post it for you.

So, did you make a New Year’s resolution for 2015? I haven’t made a resolution in a few years but this year I wanted to do something different. Something more intentional.

What did I come up with, you ask?

I’ve decided to live my life less “technologically inclined” and more “people inclined.” That is, with a more personal and less “over the waves” kind of relationship.

What exactly does that mean? I’m hoping to do less texting and emailing and more, dare I say it?, calling people to hear their voices or sending snail mail so they get more than junk and bills in their mailboxes.

I know there are some benefits to technology but I have found that, quite frankly, it’s a bit too much. On Facebook, there is almost an “air” of expectation to “like” peoples posts for fear that, gasp!, they might believe that “no one is listening to me.”

A friend recently went on Facebook and said that what normally would take 10 minutes to read through a days updates was taking more than 30 minutes.

What goes on in peoples lives is important as everything influences us for good or for bad but seriously, there are so many pictures with captions that it’s hard for me to understand why people can’t just say what they mean instead of looking for all these pictures to state and re-state the same things.

So ~ I’d like to add “less” to the problem. Hmmm … can you add less? (laughing)

You suppose it’s a middle-age mindset I have?

It is refreshing for me to get cards in the mail or notes from people telling me they thought about me. Even a phone call recently from someone I haven’t seen in 4 years was welcome this past Thanksgiving.

No worries though ~ I’ll still be updating my blog.

At the same time though, I’d like to have more intimate relationships with people because, after all, that’s what life is all about.

Wow~ It’s been over a month since I’ve posted anything. Between Thanksgiving travel, getting sick, the Christmas holidays and trying to finish a quilt, I’ve been quite busy and have kept my cooking to a “simple and easy” minimum using tried and true recipes.

My decision to tackle/make a queen sized quilt at home and give it as a Christmas gift has been somewhat problematic as I’d never done it before and encountered obstacles that tried my patience. But, patient I am ~ even if I have to remove every single stitch and start over again which happened a couple of time.  Egads!

To add some excitement to one day, I walked into the garage from the house (it’s connected via a door) to take the trash out and saw a mouse scuttle across the floor. Eeeekkkkk!!!  I’m not sure who else heard my shriek although the mouse was as scared as I was and wasn’t sure where to turn as every time he turned I shrieked again.

A few days later, I found a dead mouse (a different one ~ much smaller) next to a cabinet in the garage.  Oh the joys of living in the woods ….

Well, January will roll around soon enough though ~ can you believe it? Then, hopefully, things will be back to “normal.”

Gathering Leaves

Spades take up leaves
No better than spoons,
And bags full of leaves
Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise
Of rustling all day
Like rabbit and deer
Running away.

But the mountains I raise
Elude my embrace,
Flowing over my arms
And into my face.

I may load and unload
Again and again
Till I fill the whole shed,
And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,
And since they grew duller
From contact with earth,
Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.
But a crop is a crop,
And who’s to say where
The harvest shall stop?

Robert Frost

Actually, draperies and curtains are synonymous but I wanted to make sure you found this post in case you searched by one word and not the other. Why, do you ask, is this important?

Well, it took us almost 2.5 years to find curtains that 1) we liked and 2) were affordable.

Our family room windows had no curtains on them for the first year. Then my mother came to visit and what was a decision to leave the windows bare so we could see nature outside now became a problem.

“People can see inside,” Mama said.

“No, it’s too far from the street,” I countered.

“What about in winter when it’s dark outside and your lights are on?” Mama kept querying.

“If, by some crazy chance, there is someone out in the snow in temperatures below zero peering at us with binoculars, then by all means let them watch us watch TV,” I replied quite smugly.

The conversation ended but I soon learned that Mama was right but for the wrong reason.

You see, we have large windows in the family room and I soon learned that winters in Minnesota were, well, let’s just call them frigid. Let’s even go further and say that they are very very frigid since last year we had 30 days where the high temperature was not more than 0° Fahrenheit.

So, Mama should have given me the “energy and comfort” lecture instead of the “peeping Tom” lecture. Would I have listened?

The hunt was on for curtains. We looked at all the usual places like J C Penney and Bed Bath and Beyond. None of the “already made” curtains were good enough.

But, while at Ikea one day, I spotted some off white curtains that would work although they did not have grommets like we wanted. “This is temporary,” we reasoned. And inexpensive. But they weren’t lined and the family room, without the fireplace going, was still a tad chilly.

We decided to bite the bullet and ask Costco to come out and give us an estimate. $2700. Yikes! Okaaaaayyyyyy. I headed into J C Penney and spotted a similar curtain and asked the salesperson how much it would cost for them to install them (they were custom order). He said “about $3000.” Yikes! a second time.

Our next thought?  Well, when we moved into our house, we ordered custom blinds through a woman who was referred to us by our real estate agent so we decided to ask her to come over, measure and give us a quote. $3500!!!! Yikes!

Oh dear, I said to myself. We seem to like expensive material. I considered making curtains myself but I really need more sewing time under my belt before I’d feel comfortable doing that.

As we mulled over our options, my husband did some “googling” and found a place on Etsy that makes curtains and he sent me the link.

Hmmm … this was interesting. We selected a fabric and received a sample in the mail which looked exactly like the picture on the Etsy site. After emailing back and forth with the owner, she gave us a quote …. are you ready?

$1035, including shipping …. Yeehaw! It was like we found gold.

I was a little leery of ordering through a far-away stranger but what was the worse that could happen?

And so, we entered into a business relationship with Zeldabelle on Etsy.

Zeldabelle was the easiest person to work with. Emails were answered promptly, sample was received, the correct size grommets were available (we have a large curtain rod) and she even recommended the correct liner to keep us toasty warm.

An additional plus is that Zeldabelle has very high reviews on her site which was something that I always look at.

The “sashes” didn’t come with the curtains as I want to make my own. Also, Zeldabelle made sure we could add the plastic “wands” to the curtains so we easily close them.

So ~ if you’re having a hard time finding great quality inexpensive curtains or draperies, try Zeldabelle on Etsy. I highly recommend her.

It’s going to be a nice warm winter …

A friend and I took a walk around the outdoor Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. It was … interesting.

I’m not a big fan of sculptures although I always find the Franconia Sculpture Park quite interesting but didn’t make it out there this year.

Still ~ it was a beautiful day for a walk and I learned something new about myself.  I “see” things differently than other people. You’ll read about my discovery below.

The first sculpture I found interesting was bronze and was called Woodrow. It looked quite frightening to me.

Here’s a closer look at the head of this sculpture. Yikes! I wouldn’t want to encounter this fella.

I don’t believe I could ever create anything like this because I couldn’t visualize it in my head, could you?

Up ahead I saw something a little softer on my eyes ~ a grove of trees. I felt centered again.

Here’s another interesting sculpture … hmmmm …

Quite frankly, I didn’t see a goddess nor golden thighs in this sculpture. I know, I know … it’s in the eye of the artist. Still …

This next sculpture was more recognizable to me. I must have a stunted sense of artistry as it appears I need art to be more clear cut for me to enjoy it.

The one below is called Dawn Tree. Hmmm ….

I didn’t feel bad in not appreciating some of these sculptures as my friend wasn’t overly enthused by them either and she had worked at an Art Museum for 25 years. Maybe friends who hang out together have similar taste more often than not. What do you think?

Don’t laugh at me now … yes, I know it’s a snowman, uh, actually it’s a snowwoman.

This next sculpture brought a giggle to my otherwise wondering mind … I’m not sure why. Somehow though, I could see a pore.

Now, the sculpture of the reclining mother and child I could “see” but it didn’t take much thought.

This next sculpture really made me wonder what goes on internally that makes us humans view things so differently.

Do you see what I see? I doubt it. When I looked at the sculpture below I said to my friend “Look, a bug relaxing on a recliner.” She looked at me strangely and said “It looks like a cherry on a spoon.”

Sure enough ~ the sculpture was called Spoonbridge and Cherry.

What’s interesting to me is that it actually looks like a cherry on a spoon yet, until it was explained to me, my mind saw a reclining bug with antennae.

How do we explain this visual conundrum?

There were more sculptures at the garden here, but these were the ones I found most interesting ~ today.

So, what do you think influences the way we “see” things? The environment? Our upbringing? Education? Exposure to art?